Gallery: Military’s Freakiest Medical Projects

Alternative Therapies, From Acupuncture to Bio-Energy

Groundbreaking lab research is a military mainstay. But for the first time ever, the Pentagon is also taking advantage of alternative practices that are centuries old.

In 2008, the Air Force introduced "battlefield acupuncture" to treat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This is one of the fastest pain attenuators in existence — the pain can be gone in five minutes," says Col. Richard Niemtzow, a senior adviser to the Air Force surgeon general.

The U.S. military has been on the forefront of medical research for decades. Earlier conflicts spurred discoveries to prevent malaria and typhoid, a sweeping overhaul of triage care and the introduction of skin grafts and morphine.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are no different. With more troops surviving devastating injuries, the military is fast-tracking efforts in regenerative medicine, investigating risky measures to prevent lifelong brain damage -- even employing acupuncture in an effort to manage pain and mitigate post-traumatic stress. (And let's not forget about the zombie pigs.)

Some of the Pentagon's extreme medical innovations have already debuted in the war zone. And with myriad applications outside of combat, these advances in military medicine mean that revolutionary changes for civilian care aren't far behind.

Above:

Bone Cement for Traumatic Wound Repair

An injectable compound, which can repair damaged bone or spur bone growth, will soon be tested on 20 patients — mostly veterans — thanks to an extra $12 million in Pentagon funding doled out to the University of Pittsburgh earlier this year.

'Suspended Animation' to Stop Blood Loss, Prevent Brain Damage

In 2005, Pentagon-funded biochemist Mark Roth figured out how to turn mice into the semi-undead. A dose of hydrogen sulfide halted breathing, turned off brain activity and shut down the heart — extending "the golden hour" of survival by curbing life-threatening blood loss.

Now researchers at Texas A&M are working with funding from Darpa to try a similar procedure on pigs. But Roth is already onto a new way to induce suspended animation: Combine oxygen deprivation with induced hypothermia, to both prevent traumatic blood loss and salvage precious brain and organ tissue.

Photo: Dartmouth Engineer

Type-O Blood, in Endless Supply

Until troops can hibernate through their injuries, the military will rely on stockpiles of donated blood. But already, they're making quick strides toward replacing human donation with megadoses of lab-grown universal-donor units.

Under Darpa's Blood Pharming program, biotech firm Arteriocyte has already shipped off its first batch of type-O red blood cells — derived from umbilical cord-blood units — to the FDA. And with critical blood shortages threatening hospitals nationwide, the project would have lifesaving civilian applications.

Photo: U.S. Air Force

Prosthetic Limbs That Match the Real Thing

It wasn't until 2000 that the Pentagon started investing in better prosthetics. In only a decade, military-funded research has transformed artificial limbs, which had remained largely unchanged since the 1940s, into devices that increasingly resemble real limbs.

And soon, prosthetics might be nearly indistinguishable from the appendages they replace. Earlier this year, Darpa launched the latest phase of it's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program: This time, the agency is after devices that fuse severed nerves with robotic limbs — yielding prosthetics that offer robust freedom of movement and can acutely distinguish between myriad sensations.

Photo: U.S. Army

Nano-Lasers for Watertight Surgical Sutures

Earlier this year, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital got eight years of Pentagon funding to create handheld nanolasers that would revolutionize wound-healing and sutures.

Instead of a needle and thread, a patient's wound is coated in a dye, then exposed to green light. The dye absorbs the light and catalyzes molecular bonds between the tissue's collagen, creating a watertight seal to prevent inflammation and infection, and hastening the formation of scar tissue.

Photo: Massachusetts General Hospital

Corneal Transplants to Restore Sight

Corneal transplant surgeries are vital to restoring sight for troops injured by IEDs or chemical burns. The procedures have been around since the 1950s, but researchers made unprecedented progress thanks to Air Force-funded research over the last five years.

In 2008, Air Force surgeons performed the first-ever artificial corneal transplant, using a combination of live-donor tissue and synthetics. Mere months later, the same team debuted a laser device that hastened recovery time from one year to six months.

Photo: U.S. Air Force

Plasma Knives: Surgical Cutting That Stops Bleeding

It's a surgical cutting tool that stays sterile anywhere, runs off batteries and seals wounds using a beam of hot ionized gas. The out-there innovation — called a "plasma knife" — has already undergone field tests by Special Operations Command.

The knives, inspired by the high-energy waves of radiosurgeries (shown above) can also be deployed to cauterize wounds that occur in remote areas away from hospitals. A wave of inonized plasma penetrates necrotic tissue and melts it over a wound, creating an instant bandage that stops massive blood loss and boosts a troop's chances of survival.

Photo: Tracy Boulian

Far-Out Face-Transplant Surgeries

More troops surviving injuries means traumatic damage, often to the face or extremities, that's in need of repair. In less than a decade, face-transplant surgeries — including muscles, cartilage, nerves and tissue — have moved from Hollywood blockbusters into the operating room.

That's largely due to Pentagon funding: Earlier this year, they fast-tracked face transplants for veterans with a $3.4 million grant to Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Worldwide, a handful of civilians have already undergone face transplants, but more will soon benefit from the revolutionary procedure: Brigham's team hopes to see the surgery in clinical practice within two years.

Photo: Brigham and Women's Hospital

Laser Treatment for Fast-Tracked Burn Repair

State-of-the-art fractional laser therapy, which destroys scar tissue and allows new skin to grow, was introduced at Lackland Air Force Base in February.

From Office to Operating Room: Bioprinting Organic Parts

Scientists arrange various cell types into the wells of an ink cartridge, and program the printer to yield perfectly arranged tissue structures. The military's long-term goal is a sturdy, portable bioprinter that can use a troop's own cells to pump out new skin that quickly repairs burns sustained in combat.

Video: Wake Forest University Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Ears, Fingers and Hands: Rapid Progress in Replacement Body Parts

Face transplants are only the start. The Pentagon's Afirm Program, a collaborative effort between 14 institutions, is already in clinical trials on a new approach to transplanted hands. By eliminating the need for immunosuppressant drugs, surgeons minimize the risk of long-term side effects.

And lifelike prosthetics, including ears, noses and eyes, are now customized to the patient, thanks to 3-D modeling, skin-tone matching and titanium implants that allow the prosthetics to adhere to the body using magnets

Photo: U.S. Air Force

On-Demand Organ Delivery

Last year, Darpa
solicited proposals for devices that would use stem cells to offer a regenerative free-for-all, with in-vitro results that can "replace, restore or improve tissue/organ function."

The out-there idea isn't far from reality: Already, Afirm affiliates at Wake Forest are making rapid strides in laboratory organ production. In 2006, the team implanted the first-ever lab-grown bladders (shown above) into human patients. They're now growing more than 22 different cell types, including nerves, muscles and lungs.